No Matter What's In The Mirror, Women See Fat

Most women, research now tells us, have a fun-house mirror in their heads. Women who are, according to your standard insurance charts, of normal weight see themselves as anything but normal.

In fact, says a University of South Florida professor, the average woman sees herself as a full one-fourth larger than she really is. Psychology professor Kevin Thompson spent two years studying more than 150 women, ages 18 to 35. They did not suffer from eating disorders. They did not starve themselves, or binge-purge. They looked normal -- and didn't like the way they looked.

Only 5 percent of these self-critical women were anywhere near the money in terms of actual-vs.-perceived body image.

Cheeks top the list of body parts that women blow out of proportion, followed by the waist, thighs and hips. The worse we feel about our bodies, Thompson concluded, the worse we feel about ourselves. And he says thighs will make a woman feel worse about herself than anything else. No kidding.

Thompson conducted one study with men, the sex genetically blessed with less fat and more muscle, indicating they see themselves in a more realistic light. The average man sees his body as only 10 percent larger than it really is.

If that's not disheartening enough, the June issue of Ladies Home Journal will feature a new Weight Watchers survey that seems to tie in with Thompson's conclusions. According to the Weight Watchers poll: No matter how successful a woman is -- great marriage, job, children -- her self-esteem is lashed to her body image. This uplifting conclusion was based on the responses of 1,000 women across the country, ages 25 to 54.

About 60 percent of the women said their self-assurance took a nosedive if they gained weight. A full 70 percent said they had dieted at some point in their lives. According to the survey, the women considered their waist and hips as the ''least attractive'' parts of their bodies.

The catch is that a positive self image is essential for successful dieting. Feeling terrible about weight and body image will likely sabotage an attempt to thin down, said LHJ editor-in-chief Myrna Blyth, who commented on the survey's results.

''We look at ourselves,'' Blyth said, ''and we see our tummy and hips.'' It seems most women are stuck with their fun-house mirrors.

The questions Professor Thompson hasn't answered yet are several, and he has several studies in the works to examine: when an adolescent woman starts to see herself as larger than she is; whether runners' body images are more distorted than others'; and whether people who distort their own body images distort other people's as well. He said the studies were inspired by some fellow joggers -- both male and female -- who were addicted to running, for fear they would gain weight.

''They would get very upset if they missed a day,'' Thompson said, and ''constantly complain about being overweight and fat. They weren't.''

A jogger summed up the correlation between weight and self-esteem in a comment about his girlfriend. The South Carolina man, in his early 30s, talks about this woman in terms of the weight she has gained or lost. When once asked how she was, the boyfriend responded: ''She's great. She weighs 115 pounds.''

He may not have known it, but it's a sure bet the girlfriend thought of herself as at least a cool 145.